Cookies & Candy Baking

What do you need on cookie baking day? A regal looking cat with supervisory skills and a husband with a hammer!

We made a few old favorites: Bessie's Christmas Candy (recipe obtained from Bessie Riggin), Candy Cane Snowballs, and Soft Ginger Cookies. Then we tried a new favorite, Stained Glass Window Candy.

Bessie's Christmas Candy
1 package Almond Bark (white), melted in a double boiler
Then add:
3 cups Rice Krispies
3 cups Captain Crunch Peanut Cereal
1/2 jar dried salted peanuts
3 cups colored miniature marshmallows

Mix all ingredients well. Drop onto waxed paper. Let set. Break into chunks.

Candy Cane Snowballs
2 cups butter (no substitutes), softened
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 and 1/2 cups flour
1 cup chopped pecans

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and confectioners' sugar. Stir in vanilla. Gradually add flour. Stir in pecans. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours or until easy to handle. Roll into 1-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on un-greased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.

8 ounces white candy coating
1/3 to 1/2 cup crushed candy canes

In a microwave-safe bowl, melt candy coating; stir until smooth. Dip the tip of each cookie into the candy coating, then into the crushed candy canes. Yield: 5 dozen

Stained Glass Window Candy
1 stick unsalted butter
1 package (12 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
1 package (10 oz) colored mini marshmallows

Melt the butter and chocolate together over the stove at low heat just until melted. Stir well and let cool 10-15 minutes. (Or you run the risk of melting the marshmallows when adding them). Stir the marshmallows into the slightly cooled chocolate mixture and stir gently until well-coated. Place the bowl in the refrigerator to let the mixture cool and firm up, only about half an hour. On a sheet of wax paper or aluminum foil, form the mixture into a log about 1 and 1/2 inch thick. Roll up the log and wrap tightly, sealing the ends so it looks like a burrito. Refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight before slicing. Remove tin foil/wax paper before slicing. (*this is the tricky part!) Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

FAIL!  I've made these many times before and they are usually wonderful. They were the last cookies we mixed up and when they came out of the oven, I was tuckered out and defeated. (I don't know about you, but when I plan my baking day, I usually have grandiose plans on how many millions of different batches of adorable cookies and candies I'm going to make.... and by the time I get to only #3, I'm almost done!) Anyway, we scrapped the first batch and then realized what had happened... I saw "3/4 cup" in the recipe below and grabbed 3 cubes of butter = 1.5 cups!  That would certainly flatten them out.... I showed the picture to Audrey and she said I should delete it. I said "I have to post the fails 'cause people think I'm perfect". She literally fell to the ground in uncontrollable laughter. After about a minute of non-stop giggling, she breathed and then asked "Who does?" We were both laughing now : )

Soft Ginger Cookies
3/4 cup butter (no substitutes), softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 and 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt
Additional sugar

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg and molasses. Combine the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt; gradually add to the creamed mixture. Roll into 1 and 1/2 inch balls, and then roll in sugar. Place 2 inches apart on un-greased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until puffy and lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool. Yield: 2.5 dozen

Cranberry Appetizer # 2

John had a potluck today at work and had signed up to take an appetizer. I found another cranberry recipe to try with a different twist. This requires a little planning to refrigerate overnight. They were both good. This one was a little sweeter.

Christmas Cranberry Dip
12 oz bag fresh cranberries
1 cup sugar
1 cup pineapple preserves
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
Buttery crackers, like Keebler Club

In a 2 quart baking dish, stir together cranberries and sugar. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove cover and stir to be sure cranberries have popped and released their juices. Add pineapple preserve and stir until well combined. Allow to cool to room temperature and place in an airtight container and refrigerate overnight. Spread cream cheese over bottom of a pie plate. Spoon cranberry mixture over cream cheese and spread out evenly.

Bunco Night

They had a Relief Society Bunco activity at Jill Nelson's house tonight. Asked each person to bring something to munch on. I found a new appetizer recipe to try. Those attending: Jill Nelson, Nicole Black, Nicole Simmons, Kami Berezey, Angie Abrams, Kim Heath, Lydia Stewart, Kim Whalen & neighbor Sara, JaNae Freedland, Stephanie Dubois, Alyx Cleaver and myself. It was hard to concentrate on the game when everyone had brought something yummy to try! They had multiple tables set up so we could rotate for each round. Overall I usually stayed at the losing table and ended the night with a pretty low score compared to others, but I did have one round where I continually rolled 17 times since I kept getting at least one of the number we were rolling for. I even rolled #4 x fours one time. Fun evening! And would definitely make this recipe again. I really liked the spicy and sweet combination with the cream cheese. It was best with tortilla chips (rather than crackers). Do need to plan ahead so you have time to chill. Made the house smell divine while cooking : )

Cranberry Salsa Dip
12 oz bag fresh cranberries
1 and 1/2 cups sugar
4 and 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp allspice
8 ounce block cream cheese

Heat all ingredients except for cream cheese in saucepan over medium heat. Keep stirring as the cranberries pop and continue stirring until the cranberries are softened and the mixture has a salsa consistency (about 10 minutes). Cool the mixture and then pour over cream cheese. Serve with chips or crackers. Note: Make sure to store the cranberry mixture separate from the cream cheese as it will not store well. As long as not combined, both will store refrigerated for several days.

Church Christmas Breakfast

Saturday, 12/14 - While we were gone, our ward had a family Christmas Breakfast with the theme "Polar Express". Audrey was asked to assist with the lighting and sound system during the program. They served breakfast and hot chocolate with peppermint candy canes. We heard it was a wonderful event and extremely well attended. Audrey is pictured below as a train conductor - she is wearing Great-Grandpa Gramlow's wedding suit and Grandpa Gramlow's pocket watch.

Bro Date

John went to the movies with his older brothers, Steve and Ralph. They saw the latest Hunger Games movie, Catching Fire. He said they had a good time and the movie was great!

New Mexico: last day

Our flight left super early, so we did not have time to have breakfast at the inn. However, they packed us a to-go-breakfast and left it in our room fridge, included things like granola, fresh fruit and energy bars. (Note: The bars were local - Taos Mountain Energy Bars www.tmebars.com - and yummy!) That was nice! So we left the inn, returned the rental car and took the shuttle to the airport. We had another layover in Denver (had a snack at Woody Creek Bakery & Cafe) and arrived in Spokane. Audrey picked us up from the airport. It was good to get away - but great to be home. Three souvenir spoons from the trip: Sandia Peak, Route 66, and New Mexico state. And later, I had the miracle staircase from the Loretto Chapel mailed to me, making it 4 spoons.

New Mexico: Day #5

Today was my favorite breakfast menu! I would have enjoyed either choice. John ordered the Eggs Benedict (house made English muffins, sauteed vegetables, smoked ham and hollandaise) and I ordered the Cardamom Aebleskivers (danish pancakes served on house made apples preserves). One delicious item I had never tried was celery root, which happened to be one of the sauteed vegetables on John's plate. I need to find out how to prepare celery root. See the gorgeous breakfast room? That's where we got to enjoy gourmet breakfast each morning.  See the yummy homemade granola? Another recipe to find!  Los Poblanos Organic Farm - Our menus are rooted in what comes from our farm as well as our food shed. We call it Rio Grande Valley Cuisine and feature many ingredients from Los Poblanos. Among them are fresh eggs from our chickens, bacon and pork belly from our own pigs, honey from our honeybees, as well as, stone fruits, jujubees, figs, cardoons, and a variety of greens and vegetables. In the winter we harvest root vegetables from the fields and use microgreens from the 1934 Lord & Burhom greenhouse. 

Since John served his LDS mission here, we did need to locate an LDS chapel! We found it on our way out of town, right before fueling the rental car.

Today we headed to Santa Fe and met with John's brother, Duane, and his family. They live in Farmington, New Mexico, which is about 200 miles from Santa Fe. We only had to go about 65 miles from Albuquerque, so we ended up getting to Santa Fe before they did.

We walked by the Loretto Chapel and decided to take a tour of the miraculous staircase. Below is the picture of a model that makes it easier to show what they describe regarding the physics of the actual staircase. When the Loretto Chapel was completed in 1878, there was no way to access the choir loft twenty-two feet above. Experts at the time felt a ladder was the only solution. Legend has it that after the sisters prayed, a man appeared at the chapel looking for work. He completed the elegant circular staircase, and then disappeared.

At the end of the Old Santa Fe Trail stands the Loretto Chapel. Inside the Gothic structure is the staircase referred to as miraculous, inexplicable, marvelous and is sometimes called St. Joseph's Staircase. The stairway confounds architects, engineers and master craftsmen. It makes over two complete 360-degree turns, stands 20' tall and has no center support. It rests solely on its base and against the choir loft. The risers of the 33 steps are all of the same height. Made of an apparently extinct wood species, it was constructed with only square wooden pegs without glue or nails."

About the time we were done with that tour, we were able to meet Duane, Anngela, Zach, Blake, Gabi and Eva at the Cathedral Basillica of Saint Francis of Assisi. We toured the Cathedral and checked out some of the shops in the plaza. At Duane's suggestion we went to the Blue Corn Cafe for lunch. Fabulous suggestion! Everything that we ordered was great - would go here again if I had the opportunity.

After our meal we headed toward the Santa Fe railway station where they had a Santa Village. Activities included reindeer games, miniature train rides and pictures with Santa! It was a neat opportunity to see the kids play since we live so far from them!

Thank you Anngela & Duane for bringing your family so far to spend the day with us. We had an absolutely wonderful time!!

We headed on the road...quick note about the "cute" Fiat? Cute - - but gutless. It really did not care for the mountain terrain we drove today - I was missing my Zoom-Zoom car as we had to stay to the right for everyone else to pass : )

For dinner we went to the Flying Star Cafe when we got back into town. It was the place we were going to have breakfast a few days ago, but it was too busy (flyingstarcafe.com). Ended up not being quite as busy when we got there tonight. I ordered the fish tacos (seasoned, grilled wild Atlantic haddock, avocado, crisp slaw, pickled vegetables, chipotle sauce on 3 little tortillas corn or flour). Tasty, but they definitely had a peppy-kick to them that I was not expecting. John went mellow and just ordered a chocolate shake.